Free
by violaqueen93
Summary: When he sees her at the Capitol, every thought is driven from his head, replaced with an edginess he can't seem to shake. Why is Annie here? He's fought so hard to protect her from the people that have ruined his life, from his world, but it seems it has been all in vain. Pre Annie's Games. T for language.


**Disclaimer: Own nothing, I am poor**

**Takes place before Annie's Games. Slightly AU in the fact that Finnick and Annie had a relationship before her Games. One shot for now, toying with the idea of making it a full fledged story, but I've got a couple others that I really need to work on as well. **

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"Excuse me, excuse…Annie?" Shocked, I reach out and grab the arm of the young woman I had just so rudely bumped into. Her brunette hair whirls as she turns to me, brown eyes wide with surprise. The smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose, the way the corners of her mouth curve up- its Annie without a doubt. Callista huffs at me, obviously eager to join her gaggle of Capitol friends and with a quick kiss on the cheek I wave her on, promising to accompany her as soon as I find out why Annie is here.

"Finnick!" She's as equally astonished as I am, a faint blush painting both our cheeks as we eagerly drink in each other's faces. This is the first time since…well, _that_ time, that I've seen Annie up close.

I couldn't imagine her being any more beautiful.

"Finnick," she repeats, her voice flustered. "Wow, um, what are you doing here?"

I cock my head at her, a slightly puzzled grin stretching across my face as her voice registers in my ears, my eyes still roaming her face "I happen to live here Annie, I could be asking you the same question." I was curious, and slightly disturbed, at Annie being here. In the Capitol. My body automatically adjusts itself to shield her from the prying eyes of the Capitol citizens in attendance at this meaningless social function, and I'm suddenly on edge, my eyes flitting around the room. Why was Annie here? This wasn't right.

"Annette! Annette, there you are…Mr. Odair."

A man suddenly strides up out of the crowd, and, in front of my startled eyes, wraps an arm around Annie's waist and kisses her on the cheek. He lets out a boom of laughter, "This one's taken Odair, go cast your trident elsewhere," he slurs, waving a meaty hand at me. Dumbfounded, I can only stare at Annie with wide eyes. She won't return my gaze, flushing scarlet and examining her shoes as this brute of a man presses another drunken kiss to her cheek.

The man eyes me once again, and I can see the film of inebriation glazing his eyes over. "But where are my manners? Darling, you must introduce me to Mr. Odair."

"Oh…well…yes," Annie stumbles through her words in her awkwardness, her cheeks flaming. "Finnick, this is Ralph Summersun."

My expression must have betrayed my confusion, for Mr. Summersun looked at me in drunken incredulity. "Oh you didn't see the announcement in the social pages? Everyone who's anyone reads them," he slurs, leaning heavily on Annie who stumbles slightly in supporting his weight. "Annette is the lucky gal who's won the honor of being my wife."

I was in the midst of reaching forward to take this Summersun man's weight off of Annie's shoulders when the world tilted. "Wife," I repeated, the words still spinning through my head as I struggled to understand. "So…so you two are married?"

"No," Annie says quickly, gently pushing Summersun back on his feet. "The weddings not for another couple months."

"I'll leave you two to one another then." My voice sounds distant in my head, and it suddenly seems like I'm having an out of body experience. I can see Annie reaching out to me, her eyes pleading, but I'm already gone.

The rest of the evening passes in a blur, garish Capitol costumes and sickly sweet scents all melding together into a bizarre kaleidoscope of color. I had always known that this day would come. The day that Annie truly would move on and leave me behind. I had known, but it didn't help. The pain I felt was unlike any other, even more excruciating than the time I told Annie we couldn't be together, and for the first time, I found myself tempted by the abundance of drinks that promised to ease the pain. Agilely threading my way through the dozens of Capitol merrymakers, I grabbed the first glass I could find and prepared to throw it all back in one gulp.

A smooth hand catches my wrist. "You were never much of a drinker Finnick." I turn to find Annie glaring at me disapprovingly, looking pointedly at the cup in my hand. Slowly, I lower the glass tumbler to the table. She smiles.

"Can I help you with something?" I ask irritably. She cocks her head, her smile fading slightly at my tone.

"Can we go somewhere private to talk?" she asks, gesturing at all the people surrounding us. "You know this place better than I do. I need some air."

The crowds suddenly feel suffocating, and I'm as desperate for space as she is. Glancing over at Callista, I decide she won't even know I'm gone anyway and take Annie's hand. "Come with me."

I lead Annie out to the balcony behind the colorful drapes on the wall, acutely aware of her hand in mine. I wonder if she can feel the slight trembling in my fingers, the slight moisture gathering on my palm, then decide it doesn't matter. Annie is here. With me.

And we're alone.

A shudder rips through me at that thought and I release her hand as though it burned me, striding over to lean on the railing overlooking the crowded streets. She's not here for me. She's not mine anymore. I don't have the right to hold her hand, because I'm afraid if I do, I'll never let it go. My voice is flat as I struggle not to look at her. "Well."

For the longest moment she doesn't answer, the silence stretching between us like the months after _that _time. Just when I was about to say something, she finally opens her mouth, her voice quiet, pained.

"Finnick."

A whirlpool of emotion wells up at her voice. Frustration, at her being so close my utterly unobtainable. Sadness, at the pain in her voice. Longing, an ache that seems to have no end as her voice stirs up memories I had striven to forget. Anger, at the Capitol, at fate, everything that made the possibility of Annie being mine so completely impossible. So many emotions, and yet nothing comes to my lips. I don't have words to express what I'm feeling.

"Hey." She places her hand on my arm and I bite back a groan at her touch. My willpower crumbles at the note of pleading in her voice and I turn to face her, my breath catching in my throat.

Here, with the glowing lights illuminating her face Annie looks positively ethereal and I know that try as I might I will never be able to get this image of her out of my head. She stares back at me, her gaze searching. She bites her lip, eyes large and sad and beautiful. "They told me you weren't in the Capitol."

The words, or rather their implication, slap me in the face. She had only come to the Capitol on the provision that I was nowhere near the city and here I was. Seeing me, remembering our last conversation…

"If it makes any difference, I don't love him," she says in a low voice. The words send a subtle thrill through me though I keep my face in a carefully composed mask. "My parents agreed to the match for me. A Capitol citizen, with a successful business…they were ecstatic when he proposed.

"That's what makes him good enough for your father?" I ask through gritted teeth. Apparently Capitol businessmen who only wanted a trophy wife were acceptable whereas I...

She frowned. "What does my father have to do with anything?"

With anything? Try with everything. I try to keep the anger out of my voice as I answer her. "But you agreed to it?"

Annie doesn't answer for a long time, the look on her face telling me she's weighing her answer carefully. Her features rearrange into a defensive mask and I instinctively brace myself. Nothing good ever came of that expression.

As expected her tone is aggressive, almost like she's trying to physically strike me with her words. "It was either marry him or see Mitch, Tracey and Nina be put on the trawlers. Don't you see Finnick, I can't let them do that! I don't have a choice, I have to marry someone with enough money to buy out their conscriptions!"

"I'll marry you." I blurted out before I could stop myself. Her eyes widened, her mouth opening in surprise when I finally realized what I had done. "Shit!" Striding away, I ran my hands through my hair agitatedly, cursing myself, wanting to thrown myself over the railing. I'll marry you? Had I really just done that? She must think I'm psychotic, telling her she needs to be thrown out of my life then offering to marry her. "Dammit!"

Annie is silent through my internal rant, watching me as I pace back and forth across the paved stone of the balcony, muttering to myself. I'm so preoccupied with hating myself that I don't notice her making her way toward me until she's already there, wrapping her arms around my waist.

A lightning bolt of sensation sweeps through me and I freeze, acutely aware of every strand of her hair, every tear glistening on her eyelash. Her voice is barely a whisper. "You would really marry me?"

My mouth is suddenly dry at the sheer volume of tingles spreading through my body. I forced myself to swallow. "Of course."

And then her mouth is on mine and we're kissing, clutching at each other so desperately I fear bruises might form. Tears bubble over from my eyes but I don't let go, holding Annie close. Because she doesn't know the dreamlike future I've laid out in front of her, free from the consequences she doesn't know her parents have threatened me with, free from my obligations to the Capitol, her obligations to her family, is just that.

A dream.


End file.
